1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gaming and in particular to a method and system for secure configuration and operation of a progressive game network.
2. Related Art
Games of chance have been enjoyed by people for many years and have undergone increased and widespread popularity in recent times. As with most forms of entertainment, some players enjoy playing a single favorite game, while others prefer playing a wide variety of games. In response to the diverse range of player preferences, gaming establishments commonly offer many types of games and potential for increased winnings associated with these games, such as enhanced bonuses, progressive awards, and various prizes.
As is well known in the art and as used herein, the terms “gaming” and “gaming devices” are used to indicate that some form of wagering is involved, and that players must make wagers of value, whether actual currency or some equivalent value, e.g., token or credit. This is in contrast to the playing of non-wagering games, which implies the absence of a wager of value, and the possibility of receiving a payout; and in which skill is ordinarily an essential part of the non-wagering game.
There are many different bonus incentives that a gaming establishment may offer to entice a player to place a wager at the gaming device. An example of such a bonus is a progressive award or jackpot that accumulates over time and increases based on the number of players participating. In a progressive award, a cumulative portion of the wagers placed on the associated gaming devices is added to the progressive amount. Correspondingly, the more players that participate in the progressive award the larger and faster the award accumulates.
Gaming establishments frequently participate in a wide selection of progressive based award programs. The gaming establishments commonly assign a designated group of gaming devices to a progressive award type. Further, a gaming establishment may be required to account for each gaming device associated with the progressive award, such as by paying a use fee or license fee to a manufacturer or distributor for the progressive system. The use fee or license fee can be paid on a daily basis for each gaming device (which could be a slot machine, video poker machine, video table game such as Tablemax®, or a mobile gaming device) offering the progressive award which could include a mystery progressive.
In general, a progressive controller is utilized to oversee and control operation of the progressive system. The progressive controller often communicates with the gaming machines and hence manages the progressive for each machine. One drawback of existing systems is that the configuration of a progressive controller may be altered to establish an improper progressive controller configuration. In the event a progressive controller configuration is modified, the gaming establishment may face significant risk of financial injury because the progressive controller configuration may pay an award that is excessive or provide awards too often.
In the existing progressive controllers, the progressive controller settings are usually accessed by way of a password protected logon procedure. While password protection is somewhat beneficial, this type of protection is vulnerable in several respects. First, a password may be shared among several users and once the password is out of the direct control of the password owner, the security of password protection is compromised. Second, passwords may be anticipated. For example, many people will use their birthday, pet's name or a nickname for a password. Thus, a person wishing to guess or anticipate the password may initiate the process by researching the password owner's background and then using the owner's common information, such as a birthday, in an attempt to hack the password. Third, a password may be inadvertently observed by another individual during the login process. Finally, the actual entry of the password may be recorded by an algorithm or other type of data logging device.
Another drawback with existing progressive controllers is that the progressive system manufacturer has little or no control over the number of gaming devices that may be connected to the progressive award system. Commonly in the gaming industry, a gaming establishment will agree to pay a fee for each gaming device connected to the progressive controller. The agreement will frequently limit and specifically designate the number of gaming devices that may be connected to the progressive controller. In this way, if the gaming establishment increases the number gaming devices or groups of gaming devices, the establishment is pay an additional fee. Undesirably however, existing progressive controllers permit the gaming establishment to connect additional gaming devices to the progressive award system without paying an additional fee.
Existing progressive controllers have another drawback that requires dedicated and proprietary computer software to access the controller configurations. Currently in order to access a progressive controller, a gaming establishment employee is required to use a computer (such as a laptop or portable device) with installed proprietary computer software for gaining access to various parameters and settings of the progressive controller. As a result, this requires installation of the proprietary computer software on each computer used to access a progressive controller. This is undesirable because each installation of the proprietary software has to be maintained and updated by the gaming establishment to ensure compatibility between the various computers and progressive controllers.
Another drawback of presently employed progressive controllers is the requirement of manual entry of system parameters for configuring the controller. Each gaming device connected to the progressive controller has a plurality of parameters such as denomination, game structure and payout percentages. These parameters are entered into each gaming device, manually recorded by a gaming establishment employee and then input into the progressive controller. This process is time consuming and inefficient because there may be many gaming devices connected to a progressive controller and each gaming device's settings has to be manually recorded and input into the controller. Additionally, the manual process of recording the parameters and subsequently inputting the parameters into the progressive controller is vulnerable to data input errors. These errors can have a catastrophic effect on the profitability of the gaming device and progressive controller system because large jackpots or awards may be paid out based upon erroneous configuration parameters.
As a result, there is a need in the art for a progressive controller which overcomes the drawbacks inherent in the prior art. The method and apparatus described herein overcomes these drawbacks and provides additional new and useful benefits.